NEWTOWN, Conn. — When the old Sandy Hook Elementary School is demolished, building materials will be pulverized on site and metal will be taken away and melted down in an effort to eliminate nearly every trace of the building where a gunman killed 26 people last December.Contractors also will be required to sign confidentiality agreements and workers will guard the property’s perimeter to prevent onlookers from taking photographs or videos.The goal is to prevent exploitation of any remnants of the building, Newtown First Selectman E. Patricia Llodra said Tuesday.Demolition is set to begin next week and be finished before the Dec. 14 anniversary of the shootings. Town voters last month accepted a state grant of $49.3 million to raze the building and build a new school, which is expected to open by December 2016.The contractors’ confidentiality agreements, which were first reported Monday by The News-Times of Danbury, forbid public discussion of the site as well as photographs or disclosure of any information about the building.Llodra, the superintendent of schools and other town officials have been discussing how to handle the demolition for weeks. Llodra said they want to shield the victims’ families and the community from more trauma, and don’t want any part of the school used for personal gain.Most of the building will be completely crushed and hauled away to an undisclosed location. Some of the demolition dust may be used in the foundation and driveway of the new school, Llodra said. The town also is requiring documentation that metal and other materials that can’t be crushed and are hauled off-site are destroyed, she said.In addition to the demolition crew confidentiality agreements, the project management company, Consigli Construction, also may do background checks on the workers.“It’s a very sensitive topic,” Selectman Will Rodgers told The News-Times. “We want it to be handled in a respectful way.”

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Despicable parasite imo. The article says her public defenders tried to get her probation because she was the single mom of two boys. She shouldn't have custody of her two boys if she's doing things like this. She needed 10 years probation on top of her 8 month sentence. As the mother of two children, she really, really should have known better than to do something like this. Evil. And it can damage future prospects for folks that really lose their children. JMHO

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City woman who tried to cash in on last year's mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school by posing as a relative of one of the slain children was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months in prison, authorities said.

Hours after the gunman entered Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 children and six educators, Nouel Alba, 37, went online identifying herself as the aunt of 6-year-old Noah Pozner and soliciting donations for a funeral fund.

"My heart is entirely destroyed knowing my little man is gone," she wrote on a Facebook page, court records show.

She also claimed to have identified the body of her "nephew," and cradled his "lifeless body" in her arms, before breaking the "bad news" to "my brother and sister in law," the records show.

Alba pleaded guilty in June to federal charges of wire fraud and making false statements, court records show. The woman's public defenders had sought probation for her, describing her in court records as a struggling single mother of two boys.

HARTFORD, CONN. A 6-year-old boy killed in the massacre in Sandy Hook Elementary School shouted for his classmates to run while the gunman paused to reload and was shot moments later, the boy's mother said Friday.

The boy, Jesse Lewis, had just seen his teacher shot and urged the others to flee while the gunman, Adam Lanza, put a new clip into his semi-automatic rifle.

"He yelled, 'Run!' Adam reloaded and shot him in the head," said Scarlett Lewis, who learned details of the events inside the classroom from investigators who gathered accounts from children who survived.

"When I heard he used his last few seconds on earth to try to save his friends, I was not surprised," she said. "I am so incredibly proud of him."

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

A state investigation of last year’s elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., concluded that the shooter acted alone and had “significant mental health issues,” but investigators were unable to determine conclusively a motive for the attack or why he targeted the school.

A 48-page report released Monday by Connecticut’s lead investigator in the Newtown case, State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III, said that Adam Lanza, 20, shot his mother four times with a .22-caliber rifle as she lay in bed in their Newtown home, then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, which he had once attended. There, he forced his way in and used a Bushmaster XM15-E2S semiautomatic 5.56mm rifle to kill 26 more people — 20 children and six adults — and wound two other adults before committing suicide with a Glock 10mm handgun as police closed in.anza “acted alone and was solely criminally responsible for his actions of that day,” the report said. “Moreover, none of the evidence developed to date demonstrates probable cause to believe that any other person conspired with the shooter to commit these crimes or aided and abetted him in doing so.”

Therefore, it said, “there will be no state criminal prosecution as result of these crimes,” and “the investigation is closed.”

The report added: “The obvious question that remains is: ‘Why did the shooter murder twenty-seven people, including twenty children?’ Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively, despite the collection of extensive background information on the shooter through a multitude of interviews and other sources. The evidence clearly shows that the shooter planned his actions, including the taking of his own life, but there is no clear indication why he did so, or why he targeted Sandy Hook Elementary School.”More...

The mother of Emilie Parker, a 6-year-old who died in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School last year, created a tribute video that has gone viral on the Internet.

The video is called “Evil Did Not Win.”

The focus of the video is on the outpouring of support the former Ogden family has received over the past year. The Parker family says this support has allowed them to work through their tears and accomplish things they believe Emilie would have wanted.

The anniversary for the shooting is Dec. 14. Connecticut’s governor is calling for houses of worship to mark the first anniversary of the Newtown school shooting by ringing their bells 26 times once for each of the victims killed.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Someone close to the family said she cleaned up the graffiti herself late Sunday night.

The beautiful playground is in honor of a little girl who spent a good portion of her life at Elizabeth Park, which it why is was built there.

Children played on the playground Sunday and parents noticed something that wasn't there before.

"It looked like they were doing something to memorialize her, but to me it's still vandalism and wasn't meant to be," said Nicole King.

Letters that look like "B-E-K-S," a peace sign, the number two and the words "Sandy Hook" were spray-painted across a sign at the playground.

It was minor vandalism, but police noticed it.

"Hopefully they can find something out because it shouldn't happen to playgrounds where kids are playing, especially if it's in memory of someone," Charlotte Mansfield said.

A total of 26 playgrounds are being built in honor of the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook massacre. It's taken countless volunteers, donations and contractors to put it all together. The playgrounds are estimated to cost about $100,000.

Ana Grace's was the 18th playground built.

"I enjoy seeing other kids running around, she's having a good time, her father and I are having a good time and it's really pretty and purple makes it better," King said.

Purple was Ana Grace's favorite color. Her playground was opened a month ago, and many people hope the graffiti ended here.

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A dozen or so self-described skeptics of official accounts of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting appeared Tuesday night at the Board of Education meeting, each taking the allotted three minutes to address pointed questions to board members.

Wolfgang Halbig, the most prominent member of the group, raised questions about everything from the scale of police response that day to their refusal to accept his expert help in analyzing the event. He suggested that his legitimate efforts to get answers have been thwarted, and accused board members of toeing an official line.

But board members refused to take the bait, remaining silent throughout presentations by Halbig and several of his supporters who followed him to the microphone. The audience, which included First Selectman Pat Llodra and several other town officials who had come to support the board, also stayed silent.

The only public response came from Newtown resident Jim Fitzpatrick, who was the last to speak. Unable to let this group have the last word, he said, "It's a shame to see this circus come to town, and I'm offended by the people who have come, and these conspiracy theories. Newtown has conducted itself wonderfully."Halbig, a former Florida state trooper and U.S. Customs inspector, describes himself as a school safety and security consultant. He claims to have given school safety training and assessments to thousands of school districts nationwide, and to be a frequent speaker on safety at school board conferences across the country.

He is one of the more prominent of those who question official accounts of what happened the day of the school shootings. In numerous interviews he has criticized police response as inadequate, and on his website, sandyhookjustice.com, he poses 16 questions he says officials have never satisfactorily answered about the event. He also claims to have been threatened for persisting in his efforts to get answers to those questions.

Halbig's "16 Questions" have become a regular theme among online writings by conspiracy theorists, who began raising questions about Sandy Hook within days of the mass shooting that killed 20 first-graders and six faculty members on Dec. 14, 2012.

School and civic leaders have done their best to ignore these theorists.

Before the meeting, Llodra declined to comment on Halbig's appearance, saying she would rather keep her sights on doing what's best for her town and its residents.

"We know what happened to us and to our community, and our families and our schools, on Dec. 14, 2012," said Llodra, who took a seat at the board table to show solidarity with the members."We want to be as transparent as possible, but we have things to do on a daily basis, and this particular level of dialgoue I'm referring to our attorneys."

None of the victims' families attended.

The strategy of town and school leaders was to give this group as little attention as possible. And it worked.

A half-hour before the meeting started, Halbig's followers rallied in front of the Municipal Center. One man dressed in a Revolutionary War-era uniform waved a hanging effigy of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

At one point when the group blocked the sidewalk, town officials asked them to stand on the grass so as not to block the walkway. A policeman was then posted at the front door, and the door locked until the meeting was ready to begin.

When public comments concluded, the group left the room, with a police officer standing guard at the door to assure an orderly exit.

Earlier Tuesday, a group of Halbig's supporters visited the Danbury offices of the United Way of Western Connecticut, demanding records about the use of charitable funds collected on behalf of the Sandy Hook community. Chief Executive Officer Kim Morgan said the group was told that all financial documents for the nonprofit agency can be found online.

"I would prefer not to give them a voice in the mainstream media, and to reassure the public that all of our financial documents are online and can be accessed by anyone," Morgan said.

Seven members of the group, some carrying still and video cameras, then visited the offices of The News-Times, asking to meet with a reporter. A News-Times editor met with one member of the group, Nevada attorney Day Williams, who asked for a story about their visit to the United Way, but the request was declined.

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A vinyl peace sign installed at a playground in Mystic, Connecticut, dedicated to a victim of the Sandy Hook shooting was stolen last week by a man claiming that the Newtown massacre never happened.

After stealing the 50-pound sign from the Grace McDonnell playground, the man called McDonnell’s mother saying he did it because he believes the shooting at the school was a hoax, according to CBS2.

According to the mother, Lynn McDonnell, the man told her that her daughter “never existed.”

Grace McDonnell was one of twenty children killed by 20-year-old Adam Lanza when he went on a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14, 2012. Lanza also shot and killed six adult staff members and his mother.

Sandy Hook ‘truthers’ believe that the Newtown shooting never occurred or was part of a ‘false flag’ operation designed to open the door to the confiscation of all guns by the government.

The Grace McDonnell playground is one of 26 planned playgrounds being built by the Where Angels Play Foundation in honor of all 26 victims.

The latest incident comes two weeks after another playground sign, located in Hartford, was vandalized with someone spray-painting ‘Peace to Sandy Hook,’ a peace sign, and the numeral ’2′ on it.

Lots of comments

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The Newtown Legislative Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday night on a proposal to raze the house and preserve it as open space. The Connecticut town is also considering putting a limitation on the deed to the property specifying that the victims' families would get any proceeds from any sale or development of the land.

Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy, in the home before going on the shooting rampage at the school in December 2012. He committed suicide as police closed in.

The house was given to the town in December by a bank that acquired the property from the Lanza family.

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Officials in Newtown have voted to tear down the home where Adam Lanza lived before he carried out the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The vote Wednesday evening by the Newtown Legislative Council approves a proposal by the board of selectmen to raze the 3,100-square-foot home and keep the land as open space.

First Selectwoman Pat Llodra said she expects the Lanza house will be razed once winter is over. The 2-acre property was given to the town in December by a bank that acquired it from the Lanza family.Neighbors have been pleading with town officials to tear down the house, with one resident saying it's "a constant reminder of the evil that resided there."

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NEWTOWN -- The home of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza has been cleared from the town's landscape, following the wishes of many who saw the hilltop Colonial as a grim reminder of the Dec. 14, 2012 massacre.

The two-story home, where 20-year-old Lanza lived before shooting his mother to death and then killing 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School, was demolished Monday and Tuesday, leaving nothing but the lawn and hardwoods on the 2-acre site.Leaders maintained that solemn spirit as construction began at the new Sandy Hook Elementary School earlier this month, near the site where the old school was razed. The plan for the old site is to keep the space green and natural, without markers or memorials but possibly allowing private visits at some future point.

The town has a similar vision for the Lanza home, to keep the space open and green.The $520,000 home on Yogananda Street had been turned over to the town at no cost by the bank that held the mortgage. The Legislative Council voted 10-0 in January to demolish it after neighbors said it had become a spectacle.

The 3,100-square-foot home had been vacant for two years.

"All I want to say is, I am glad it is done," Legislative Council Chairwoman Mary Ann Jacob said Tuesday.

The idea is to allow the lot to grow wild, with the help of some spring planting.

"We want to make the grass look a little less like a lawn," said George Benson, the town's planning director, who was overseeing the finishing touches of the demolition on Tuesday. "Hopefully, it will fade into the rest of the neighborhood.

"Once it grows in, people will hopefully forget, eventually, that it was here," Benson said.

In the weeks leading up to the demolition, town officials spoke with neighbors and Plainville-based contractor Manafort Brothers, which agreed to raze the home at no charge, to be sure there was as little neighborhood disruption as possible.

The plan was to do most of the work while children were at school, for example.

"This is something everybody wanted to do," Benson said as a large backhoe dug up the sloping macadam driveway, emptying the debris into a town dump truck.

"We wanted this done as quickly and as efficiently as possible," he said. "Normally this would take a week, but for Manafort to get this much done this quickly was really good."

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan